BATIM - ReImagined
by GameFan 335
Summary: In this BATIM/BioShock Crossover, Henry Ross goes missing at Joey Drew Studios in 1969. In 1998, Agnes, a former Little Sister, goes into the studio to look for her great-uncle. Full summary inside. Rated T for safety
1. Prologue

**_BATIM – REIMAGINED_**

 **Summary**

My name is Agnes, and my great-uncle Henry Ross was an animator and one of the higher-ups at SillyVision Studio. A studio that he helped found.

Henry went back to the Studio in the year 1969, and went missing. In mid-1998, desperate for answers, I took matters into my own hands and went to the studio. God, I wish I hadn't…

But this place won't get the best of me! I have an ace up my sleeve, something from my past, even if it is a last resort…

 **Disclaimer**

Bendy and the Ink Machine, BioShock and their characters do not belong to me. My only property in this fanfiction is my OC, Agnes. 'Bendy' MAY be out of character, depending on what is actually canon for him. This disclaimer applies for the entire fanfiction, so just because this isn't copied into the other chapters, doesn't mean it isn't there.

 **a/n:** I live! I know I should be writing my Skyrim fanfiction, but I have been lacking motivation for that one and the current chapter just doesn't want to be written. My most sincere apologies to any of my followers waiting for that. I promise to return to it as soon as inspiration strikes again. Without any further ado, I give to you the prologue of BATIM: ReImagined.

 **Prologue**

~ _AUTHOR POV_ ~

 _1:30pm, May 8_ _th_ _, 1969_

A young, black-haired woman sat at a sun-drenched dining table, twirling a worn leather case in her hand. A mild blue light can be seen through the seam. Upon hearing the familiar creaking of the mail slot, she looked up. Pocketing her treasure, she picks up the mail at the door, sorting through it.

"Uncle Henry!" she called up the stairs, "Mail!"

Upstairs in the study, a middle-aged man was lost in the past, looking at a black-and-white photograph. When he noticed he'd been called for, he carefully put the photo back in a box next to two old army medals. After placing the box back in the locked drawer on the desk, he left the room.

He sat in the lounge-room and picked up the mail and newspaper that was left on the coffee table. The young woman sat in an armchair, reading her own letter.

"Anything on the agenda today, Agnes?" he asked her.

"Not today, Uncle Henry." she sighed, "I wanted to go shopping with Aunt Linda, but she was already gone when I got up. Although, my parents called this morning. They want me to stay with them this weekend."

"I can drop you off tomorrow. It's only two hours' drive." Henry suggested.

"Thanks. I thought I'd have to take the bus!" Agnes beamed.

Going back to checking his mail, Henry noticed a yellowed envelope slightly stained with old ink.

"Where did this come from?" he raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Agnes perked up.

"See for yourself." he showed her the envelope, "This is strange. Think it's safe to open?"

"I don't see stains on the inside, so maybe..?" Agnes shrugged. Although, something about the letter sent a shiver down her spine. She thought she was just being paranoid, so she kept it to herself.

Henry went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife to act as a letter opener. He carefully got the old, crinkly letter out and was shocked at what was written.

 _Dear Henry,_

 _It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years really slips by, doesn't it?_

 _If you're back in town, come visit the old workshop. There's something I need to show you._

 _Your best pal,_

 _Joey Drew_

Underneath the signature was a deep, upturned and solid black symbol with a yellowed capital B in the centre.

On autopilot, Henry went back upstairs into his study and got another letter out of his drawer. It was the last letter he received from Joey, telling him to forget ever getting his job back.

The handwriting was exactly the same. Right down to the "Your best pal" closer. But what was with that stamp underneath the signature? It looked like that shape of… no. It couldn't be.

Henry was speechless. After all these years, Joey _finally_ wanted to get in touch with him. How did he know that Henry was back in town? He and Linda had only moved back into this small country town five months ago. How could Joey have known where to send the letter?

But that wasn't really the point… Henry had tried to get into contact with Joey Drew several times since returning from Africa after being honourably discharged from the Army in 1943. Only now, did Joey finally deign to answer him, a decade after Henry had given up on hearing from him. Did Joey realise that Henry had never wanted to quit?

Henry walked back into the lounge-room and sat down, still deep in thought.

"What's up, Uncle Henry?" Agnes sat next to him, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I may as well have…" Henry groaned, "Remember Joey Drew? My employer at SillyVision Studio and one-time friend? He finally sent me a reply to my letters and phone calls. Over twenty years after the last letter I sent."

Agnes gasped. "No kidding? But isn't that a good thing? Maybe he wants to make amends."

"I'm not sure." Henry said, sitting up straighter, "He wants me to meet him at the studio to show me something, but you said just yesterday that you saw it abandoned while you were on the way to work."

She nodded, folding her arms. "True… So, what do you want to do?"

Henry considered for a while.

On one hand, he hated holding a grudge. On the other hand, he wasn't the one that had a quarrel with Joey, it was the other way around. Joey was the one that had given Henry the silent treatment after the latter had been drafted to fight in World War II. It didn't seem to matter that Henry wasn't the only one in the studio that was being sent to war.

Henry had had no say in the matter. It was either quit his job and serve his country (true, he was willing to do so, anyway), or not answer the call and be court marshalled, losing a year's salary at most. Or even be locked up. That was something he could not afford to chance.

But that wasn't the only reason he'd left. He was sick of giving and giving when Joey was doing nothing but taking. Henry did the work, and gave the ideas and Joey was the one that cashed in.

It was a tough decision, whether to go and meet Joey at the studio or not. In the end, he decided it was high time to be the bigger man and bury the hatchet.

After he and Agnes had helped Linda with the groceries, he told them where he was going that afternoon.

"Wait, you're actually going?" Agnes yelped, disbelief in her eyes, "Uncle Henry, that place is a death-trap. Ask Joey to meet you somewhere else!"

"She could be right, dear." Linda commented, "Remember the times her warnings saved us from harm?"

Linda had a point. There were a few times when Agnes had forewarned them of near-death experiences that would have killed them if they hadn't known it was coming. For example, she had pulled Linda out of the path of a drunken driver one late afternoon five years previously.

And, recently, she had warned Henry not to order any of the seafood from a restaurant they dined at one night. It turned out all the utensils used to prepare seafood had been contaminated with shellfish from previous dishes, which Henry was allergic to.

In other words, she had predicted several incidents and had averted them for the most part. Maybe she was trying to do the same, now.

But meeting an old employer couldn't be that dangerous. Could it..?

Agnes held Henry's hand in hers and begged, "At least let me come with you."

To his credit, Henry genuinely considered it. But he didn't want anyone else going with him.

"No." he decided, "It's OK. I'm just meeting my old boss. We don't think we'll go far into the studio. I'll be careful. I promise."

A few hours later, he left, stating he should be back by nightfall.

Linda and Agnes waited up for him, but he didn't come back after dark. They gave up waiting at midnight and went to bed, hoping he would be back by morning.

But he was still not home when Linda woke up the next morning to find Henry's side of the bed still empty.

That afternoon, after not getting so much as a phone call, they asked around the neighbourhood for any sign of Henry. No-one had seen him, and his car was still parked in front of the Studio four blocks away from the house.

Fearing the worst, Linda called the police. A missing person's case was opened and they searched the Studio and the Music Department for any sign of Henry. Nothing was found. Nothing but an empty, ink-stained surgical table in a small room towards the back of the studio. While it was suspicious, no blood was found on it, so it was dismissed by the detectives and left where it was.

They did notice, however, that one section of wall close to the break room wasn't stained. Knocking on the wall did not yield a secret room, however, so the wall sounded as solid as the rest.

One their way out, they walked over a part of the floor that they didn't notice had been freshly boarded over.

Unable to turn up clues at the studio, the police got statements and compiled the case. Investigations went on for years, with each lead either turning out to be unrelated to Henry's disappearance or going cold before being followed up.

Come the 1980s, the Henry Ross Missing Person's case had been declared a cold case. And Linda gave up hope on ever seeing her beloved husband again.

But someone never gave up Henry for dead. She remembered the strange letter he'd got and how odd Henry had acted before he'd left.

Agnes Ross was certain that Henry was still alive, somewhere in the Studio. Something was keeping him from coming home, she just knew it. But nothing she told her great-aunt would get her permission to even walk the same street as the studio. And Agnes never had the heart to fully pursue it.

~?~

Even more time passed and unbeknownst to everyone, in a room underground, a summoning circle drawn in ink proudly stood the test of time as years went by. Even when the floorboards it was drawn on started to rot and the studio above began crumble away…


	2. Chapter One: Moving Pictures

**a/n:** Here it is. The next chapter. This is where the story truly begins.

 **Chapter One – Moving Pictures**

~ _Agnes POV_ ~

 _3pm, April 13_ _th_ _, 1998_

I hung up my phone call in a huff. The police weren't any help anymore.

Even when they returned to the Studio with their new crime-solving technology a year ago, no trace of Henry was found before they had to leave due to worries of structural decay. Although, after this long, even I was losing hope.

It has been almost 39 years since Henry went missing. As much as I wanted to find him alive, would he still be alive at this point? Who's to say Henry hadn't passed away by now, wherever he is?

But, my instincts told me that Henry was still alive, somehow. I still couldn't forgive myself for not insisting on going with Henry that day. I needed closure, or else this was going to drive me insane.

Aunt Linda had died two weeks ago without any answers. I'll be damned if I let the same happen to me.

Brushing my hair in front of the mirror, I once again observed that I only looked about half my actual age. And not a single grey hair or wrinkle. Damn Little Sister genetics…

Regaining my focus, I got things ready to go. I packed a backpack with medical supplies, a set of my husband's old clothes and canned food for Henry. Who knew what condition I would find Henry in if he was still down there?

After some consideration, I also put the worn leather case in the front pocket of the bag. I wouldn't know when the contents would come in handy until it happened.

I also got out an antique medieval longsword and a pistol with a holster from the weapon safe. No way was I going unprepared. I attached the holster to my belt and grabbed an extra ammo clip plus a box of bullets. The gun was a last resort and the sword was mostly a scare tactic, but I did have fencing lessons twenty years ago. It was highly doubtful I would actually use it, though. But something told me to be prepared.

I was going to the Studio, and I was not going to leave until I'd found some proof that Henry was there, alive or dead.

After putting on a knee-length jacket, strapping the scabbard of the sword against my back and shouldering the backpack, I typed a message for my husband and sent it as I left the house, locking the door behind me.

~ _At the Studio_ ~

I had done my research on this place years ago when the Internet had been invented. SillyVision Studio, later known as Joey Drew Studio. I knew all about the rubber-hose style cartoon that was made here after Henry had left. And I knew the names of the employees that were working here when things went south, and people went missing. That list of missing people eventually grew to add Uncle Henry.

Now was the time to solve this mystery, once and for all.

The door fell over as I tried to open it. That was never a good sign of a building's structural integrity. Maybe I was too harsh in my thoughts of the police apparently wussing out. If I wasn't on a mission, I wouldn't go in here even if I was paid ten thousand dollars.

The front hallway and the foyer were stained with ink all the way to my mid-calves. The stain had long since dried though, leaving me a little worried, but not freaked out. What had happened here? The police had mentioned ink stains, but I didn't think it'd been anything like this.

Along the walls, several posters had long since fallen from their original positions. I picked them up and confirmed that they were theatrical release posters. Some featured Bendy the Demon, the titular character of Bendy and Friends. He was a little demon that liked to dance. But not as much as playing pranks and getting up to mischief. The other posters showed Boris the Wolf, Bendy's laid-back friend who loved to play the clarinet.

Continuing on, I entered the main studio, where the animations were made and screen-tested. Emphasis on the past tense. This place didn't seem fit for much anymore.

As I walked around, I could almost see the history this place had. The entire place was built on wood planks and panelling, which would've given it a slightly homey vibe in its day. Not anymore.

Ignoring the general creepiness of the place, I looked around, checking for anything that the police might have missed.

Going down one hallway, I came across a drawing desk with Henry's name carved on it. What seemed to be early concept art for Bendy was in pride of place, albeit with a note with the word "No" taped onto a corner.

In the nook were a few more things that screamed of Henry. Things started to hit home and I was hit by memories once again.

"Where did you go, Henry..?" I whispered.

I wandered deeper into the building. I came to a worn sign that gave me directions to different areas. I chose to turn right, as the left path was very short and boasted only one door.

It got too dark for me to see as I went further along, so I turned on my flashlight. Wasn't it still light out? I hadn't been in here for that long, have I?

Hearing a dull 'glop' noise and a groan, I turned towards it, pointing my gun and my flashlight in that direction.

 _Something_ was rising out of an ink puddle on the floor! It looked to be the upper half of an ink-covered, skeletal human being. Mouth agape in a soundless scream, it lurched toward me.

" _OHMAHGOD!_ " I screamed.

Bracing myself, I activated my Telekinesis Plasmid and threw the ink-man to splat against one wall and then against the other and repeated the process until it didn't reform.

"Gross!" I whined. Then I nearly screamed, dropping the ground and holding my pounding head.

The after-effects of using the Telekinesis

God that hurt!

While that wears off, allow me to explain. I am a former Little Sister. Jack Ryan and Doctor Tenenbaum saved me from the underwater city of Rapture, along with others like me, and took me home. I was one of the few girls that still had a family to return to. I have some genetics left, plus one Plasmid that I was exposed to through the ADAM, but you won't see me searching around for 'Angels' anymore.

Although I really need the ADAM that would give me. The reason using that persistent Plasmid hurt so much was because there is no active ADAM to charge it. Using the Telekinesis a lot would be very detrimental to my brain activity, as it goes into hyper-drive to compensate for the very low amount of remaining ADAM. At this point, I can only lift and throw what I normally can, physically. And it's still dwindling.

A problem for another day, hopefully.

Certain that that creature wasn't the only one, I holstered the pistol and drew my sword. I would save any ammunition for big confrontations. Who knew how many creatures like that were in here?

Continuing down the hall and turning a few corners, I came to an Ink Machine room. At least, that's what the sign said.

It had been boarded up, but it seemed the wood had just rotted and fell away over time.

I was on a balcony overlooking a squared chasm. Chains went down into the four corners of the chasm. There was a mechanism next to me, with two dry-cell batteries in it. I contemplated removing them, but the arcing electricity coming from them changed my mind. I had no idea how to safely remove them. Or even what removing them would do.

Looking around, I found a brown, ink-stained jacket laid on top of a toolbox. I took a closer look and picked it up. It was Henry's! I remember getting it out of the wash for him.

Now I know he's here. Did he fall into the chasm? No. There's no way he could've gone down there. I don't see a door that a staircase would let out at. So where is he?

Ink stained the walls of this room, too. Maybe he got swept off the balcony? He was obviously in this room at one point.

My hand froze as I moved to pull the lever to possibly retract the chains. My mind was screaming that that was a very bad idea. What if that was what got Henry caught?

Dropping my arm back to my side, I turned and left the room, passing by an old Bendy cut-out. Now it was obvious that there was a basement, and Henry was down there somewhere. My best course of action would be to find a way downstairs.

I could only hope that Henry was still here, one way or another…

~ _? POV_ ~

Who was this lady?

She just entered the studio as if she owned the place. From the sound of things, she was looking for Henry. The police had already been here twice looking for him. Plus the times they searched the place for other employees that went missing. Seems like they'll never give up.

She wasn't a police officer, though. She'd be more professional going about the place, more methodical. She was just ambling about, looking for clues, and now looking for a way downstairs. It seemed she came prepared, though, from the way she rebuffed her attacker, earlier. Why was she here?

Rifling through memories embedded in the Ink, I found out who she was…

Agnes Ross, related to Henry Ross. Should've seen that coming. She was looking for him, after all. According to Henry's memories, she had wanted to come with him that night, but he didn't allow her to.

Now she was here. She has no idea what she was getting herself into. This place was Hell on Earth.

I should know. I made it this way.

But, now, the endgame for my ongoing war against Joey Drew was approaching fast. There's no way he'll ignore fresh meat in the Studio. The poor woman was soon to be trapped in here with the rest of us and she didn't even know it.

I needed to warn her, but something else took priority.

Joey was soon to make his move, so it was time for me to make mine.

I returned to my true body and went through a portal to the Summoning room. I took with me a sealed black coffin, which I immediately placed on the ground and opened. Reaching into the ink filling the coffin, I carefully removed the occupant and placed him so he was lying on his side in the summoning circle.

Now comes the difficult step.

Concentrating my mind, I sifted through the Ink coursing through the Studio. As I drifted in the black, I listened for his almost inaudible voice amongst the cacophony. Was he still there?

…

…

…

…

…

Yes!

He was very weak, and was scattered all over the place, but he was still there.

I gently coaxed each individual piece towards one another. At first they resisted, but were more compliant once it was known that I meant no further harm. Shame that he may not remember that when he wakes up.

Once it was all in one piece once again, I took it to where it first entered the Ink from. Releasing my hold on it, I watched it rush to the light.

I reformed in front of the summoning circle and looked down at my handiwork. A middle-aged man lay unconscious in the circle. He looked slightly malnourished, had more grey hairs than before and had dark shadows under his eyes, but after one whooping gasp and a round of coughing, he was properly breathing again.

My grin widened and I nearly cheered in triumph. My plan had worked perfectly!

Henry was alive!

Before I slipped back into the Ink, I propped up a fireman's axe against the coffin. He had found this before his demise, and he would need a weapon to survive down here. Things had changed a lot since he turned on the Ink Machine.

I wanted to greet him when he woke up, and tell him what he was up against, but I couldn't take the chance that he'll be hostile. I'm not exactly a looker right now, thanks to my state of mind when I was freed from the Ink Machine.

But it's not just that. According to his last memories, Henry was most likely going to be subconsciously terrified of me. Of course he would be. I don't blame him one bit.

The sobering thought made my smile drop. Could he ever fully forgive me for what I did?

That was a question for when this was all said and done. I've done what I can for him for now.

Good luck, Creator.

 **a/n:** This is a pilot. If I get enough positive reviews, I'll continue.

For those who think I've already given away her trump card… I haven't! :-)

Please review! No flames, please, but constructive criticism is welcome. I know I'm not the best writer.


	3. Update

Hi guys!

The final chapter of Bendy and the Ink Machine threw me for a bit of a loop. I am going to need time to decide if I need to rethink my story or keep it as an AU. I already know what I have to change, but it will take me a bit of time to rewrite it from the beginning.

Comment what you think and I promise to take it into consideration.


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